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Pussy Riot two freed under Russian’s amnesty law
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 23 December 2013
As expected, the two jailed members of punk protest group Pussy Riot have been released from prison just in time for Christmas as part of an amnesty bill recently pushed through the Russian parliament by President Putin.
The clemency legislation was officially written to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Russia’s post-Soviet constitution, though many see it as a bid by the Russian government to put to bed various controversial prosecutions that have occurred in the country in recent years ahead of next February’s Winter Olympics. Presumably the hope is that, with many political prisoners freed, Russian spin-doctors can focus their efforts instead on countering international opposition expected during the big winter sports fest to the country’s recent anti-gay legislation.
Either way, neither Pussy Riot members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were especially pleased with the circumstances of their early release, which they have dubbed a pre-Olympics “PR stunt”. As it was, the two women, jailed for their part in an anti-Putin protest performance in a Moscow church in early 2012, were nearing the end of their jail sentences anyway, and their prosecution and jailing has been called into question by the Russian Supreme Court.
Whereas another high profile Putin opponent let out of jail by the amnesty law, businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has been pretty conciliatory since his release last week, the husband of Tolokonnikova has told the BBC of his wife and fellow jailed Pussy Riot member “the only thing they have acquired over their two years in prison is their confidence to continue fighting Putin’s regime even harder”.
Tolokonnikova herself said after being freed from the Siberian jail that she had recently been moved to: “They [the government] just put on another show ahead of the Olympics, such is their big desire to prevent all European countries from boycotting our Russian Olympics. But let us remember about all those people who are not much talked about and are even forgotten but who still need to come out of their jails as they don’t belong there”.
Earlier, Alyokhina called the way she had been released “a profanation” and “a PR exercise”, adding: “If I had a choice to refuse [the amnesty], I would have, without a doubt”.
The two women are now expected to consult other human rights groups about future protests, including a campaign to call for prison reform in Russia.
